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Board Game Review: Nab ‘Em

You might’ve noticed we’ve begun to add a lot of new features here at The Weekly Spoon. Some of these things include conventions and board games! Board game reviews will be structured a little differently and are intended to be succinct enough to give you a good idea if you’d like to buy the game yourself.

< 5 = poor concept and execution
5 = the game is average, nothing you haven’t seen before (all games start this tier!)
6 = the game presents some new twists and is a bit better than your average
7 = the game is pretty unique but it works
8 = it was impressive
9 = yes absolutely
10 = this is an extremely rare rating, it would mean the game has absolutely no problems which is generally not true for anything

For this particular set of reviews, copies of the game were provided by the developers for review. All opinions here are my own and not in any way sponsored or paid for by the developer.

Overview

Nab ‘Em describes itself as a quick play card game for 2-5 players. The flavor text speaks heavily of Indiana Jones-like concepts accompanied by an older cartoon animation style not dissimilar to old Batman. In a style that is reminiscent of the card game War, a card is played in the middle of the players and every player goes around to play a card to “fight” this middle card. Your ability to beat the opponents to the catch is dependent on scores placed on the cards. Throw some special abilities into the mix and you’ve got the idea down!

Packaging – 6

It comes in a relatively ordinary card box, nothing extravagant, but it gets the job done. The bonus is that it’s easy to slip into a purse or pocket!

Design – 6

One of the fun things about Nab’ Em is the pulp artwork. The cards are simple and straightforward, making the artwork a real center of attention. The downside here is that there isn’t very much of it. Much of it is reused, the way it would be in a standard deck of cards. I also felt like the cards had a lot of things going on on them so it took a bit to figure out what number/symbol was meant for what.

Approachability – 5

This leads us into our rules section. Unfortunately, the rules are extremely vague and a lot of reading between the lines was necessary. They came on a folded sheet of paper stuffed into the box. It was clear that a lot of love and care was put into the game, but even after having the game explained to me personally at PAX it was hard for me to explain it to my friends. We still aren’t 100% clear on some of the symbols meanings. I wish the rules had had some kind of table for this. As such, it might take a bit of back and forth to get it right. Worst would be the use of Allies and any special descriptions on cards. We would just go by table consensus as to what we thought the right ruling would be.

Replayability – 7

Absolutely. Once you’ve got it down, the rounds are quick. It’s easy to just keep playing. There is the sense that you really want to get that card to trounce everyone else, like the feeling you get from playing War. Even with the initial rules hiccups, the game moves pretty quickly. Definitely a quick 15-20 minute game you could pull out easily at a restaurant or even in the car.

Enjoyment – 5

While I definitely like the idea and concept, I ended the game feeling like I would’ve rather played War. It was quick and fun, and easy enough to be taught to children if you have them. I think that kids would have an easy time with the numbers and colors. So if you have kids, you’ll probably enjoy this. If you have a bit of a more serious group, you might struggle with playing this game again after you’ve run a couple rounds.

Score: 6

Nab ‘Em is a good game for kids and more casual groups who need a quick card game to play when they have some downtime. The rules are a bit vague but you can guess most of the intentions with a little ingenuity.